US Politics, October 2019 — I guess statement you could say with thread. I made a thread. The thread was PERFECT.

The issue with the defeatism itt is that several times, people have called out that the constant, contextless negativity and bleak outlook was triggering to their anxiety and caused them to disengage.

And folks with higher stakes than some of us have also taken time to decry the occasional hyperbolic despair ITT.

So I get we all feel it, but I read this thread for recent news as I find it impossible to keep up, so it's helpful to get the greatest hits here .

I also enjoy everybody's takes on what a development might mean, even if it's not a positive development.

But the kneejerk driveby nihilism can be a put off.

Someone venting their personal anguish is one thing. Constant drivebys of "the world is fucked and we are all gonna die" are aggravating.

Xxxxxxposts

His inauguration numbers were low bc he ran the most scabrous and contemptible campaign ever. He should jave gotten less popular from there but he hasn’t.

I think I'm Big Meese
Herbert Hoover

xp

But point taken. I’m not alone in my dislike of Trump. He is beatable in 2020.

But the kneejerk driveby nihilism can be a put off.

Someone venting their personal anguish is one thing. Constant drivebys of "the world is fucked and we are all gonna die" are aggravating.

yeah I totally agree w this. Large chunks of these threads consist of this, and it's both frustrating and unhelpful and really I just skip huge swathes of them to get to whatever the next actual news/relevant analysis is.

Trump is banking on the fact that he’ll win the close-call states he took in 2016 while running against a candidate who (it doesn’t matter which candidate) will be more popular than the one he ran against in 2016, both due to any of the possible nominees being simply more well-liked than HRC and also Trump’s incoherent presidency coming into play.

That you persist in thinking otherwise may reflect a deep self-loathing, I don't want to speculate

lolol love when ppl go all armchair psychology on datazz

The issue with the defeatism itt is that several times, people have called out that the constant, contextless negativity and bleak outlook was triggering to their anxiety and caused them to disengage.

And folks with higher stakes than some of us have also taken time to decry the occasional hyperbolic despair ITT.

I've been playing shrink and terror on this thread since November 2016. I don't see myself relinquishing this role despite the croaking of despair from some of y'all.

I wonder if those of you who moan the loudest live in red states, therefore have more reason to. I'm surrounded by venomous Cubans and it makes me wanna win, not cry.

We've needed you!

Xpost

which would've happened under President Jeb! or Rubio.

I feel like either one of them might have scheduled at least one other meeting, or reading a briefing packet, into an eight hour day.

I live in one of the bluest of blue states, but my friends from Arizona told me last night that as worried as they were moving there it's nowhere near the red wasteland they expected. In fact, they were pretty adamant that Arizona was purple, which ... I guess, if you're feeling generous. Let's see how 2020 goes.

Defeating the caliphate singlehandedly is exhausting

Xpost

oh there are parts of AZ that are a red wasteland. anywhere not by a city, not by a college, or not on a rez.

That's true of every state, though.

yeah exactly

I think Trump may be losing the moron vote in AZ tho. Saw a jeep the other day that had this scrawled on it: "SICK OF 45. TRUMP HAS NO DIGNITITY"

got to bag it up

Haha

I wish it was 50/50, but red state governments have been in overdrive with voter purges and other forms of voter suppression. The amount of corporate anti-Warren or anti-Sanders advertising will be enormous.

This will help them keep the Senate, but Trump has only his die hard fan base and he no longer gets the benefit of the doubt about how he will act as president. Unlike the last election, which was a referendum on maintaining the Obama status quo under a less-likeable politically-damaged candidate, this election will be a referendum on Trump's first term, no matter how hard the right wing machinery tries to make it about anything else. They'll sell 'fear of the Democrat' as hard as they possibly can, but the only eager buyers for that will be the 35% to 40% who consistently approve of Trump.

Mainly, the democrat has to look reasonably attractive and sane, and have a hell of a good GOTV organization. Unless Trump causes a reverse-coattails landslide, I doubt the Democrats will get the Senate, but they sure as hell need to try.

got to bag it up

irl inadvertent snort

Once you grasp that a sizeable portion of the country will absolutely HATE whatever Democrats get into office and consider all of their policy proposals as treason or a sure-fire catastrophe (even when they are retread Republican proposals), then the next step is realizing you need to play McConnell-style hardball, ram through whatever bills you can, and be willing to run on the results. There's no better alternative.

perhaps worth noting that McConnell has been unable to "ram through" literally *any* legislation. To do so he (or the Dems) would need to gut the filibuster.

(a measure I support fwiw)

I generally have a pretty sunny outlook. My most defeatist/pessimistic thought is that there may always be 30-49% of the electorate who hates the president's guts. It'll just be a different 30-49%. Perhaps that will become the new normal: a pendulum swinging back and forth forever.

Further, I wouldn't be too surprised if every time you have a House majority of the opposite party from the president you will see impeachment rumblings begin on inauguration day.

My more optimistic side does still kinda cling to the notion that a lot of the teahadis / MAGA chuds are pretty old and pretty white. While the electorate of the future will still be full of problematic mofos, those particular problematic mofos will gradually recede from the picture.

"SICK OF 45. TRUMP HAS NO DIGNITITY"

November thread title imo

DIGNITITY

His inauguration numbers were low bc he ran the most scabrous and contemptible campaign ever. He should jave gotten less popular from there but he hasn’t.

Why? He's still the same guy those people voted for. Anyone dumb enough to believe he was gonna have Mexico fund a wall is also dumb enough to believe that the only reason why he can't is because of Deep State or the fact that the swamp hasn't been fully drained yet. They don't care about the racism (in fact, they love it), they don't give a shit that he lies (who cares, FAKE NEWS CNN does it!!!), and they love that liberals get massively triggered by his brain trying to escape through his ears. Only thing that's gonna move the needle is a recession, or perhaps another unwinnable war.

perhaps worth noting that McConnell has been unable to "ram through" literally *any* legislation. To do so he (or the Dems) would need to gut the filibuster.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, October 8, 2019 1:09 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

he's been saving his ramming for the judiciary

yeah but the thing about the judiciary is its a rearguard action, filling the courts with rightwing apparatchiks is a strategy to get legislation blocked/overturned - but what the Dems need is actual legislation passed: on climate change, healthcare, taxes etc. Dems adopting McConnell's strategy will not in and of itself allow them to achieve any goals.

he did abolish the filibuster on supreme court noms

Dems will need to be similarly aggressive with the SC (court packing etc.)

President Dem needs to ram through 7 justices

10-15 just to make a point imo

Buttigieg has a plan for that iirc.

"No way, that's how they got Nixon," is an airtight defense that raises zero eyebrows. https://t.co/XVCx1IhDw3

— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) October 8, 2019

"Wow, O.K.," responded U.S. Chief District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington, D.C., sounding unpersuaded. "As I said, the department is taking an extraordinary position in this case."

— Spencer Hsu (@hsu_spencer) October 8, 2019

Trump team really doesn't get that their reasoning sounds like utter nonsense to anyone with the smallest shred of professionalism.

loyalty first, professionalism...tbd

"Wow, O.K." better be next month's thread title

the only good thing about this administration is the promise of ever better thread titles every day

we should be having daily threads to capture them all

They don't care about the racism (in fact, they love it)

they don't like racism
oh no
they love it

The Washington Post reports:

Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday that he would not testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee and that he “can’t imagine” that anyone from the Trump administration would appear before the panel led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) either.

“The position I’m stating is now the position of the administration,” Giuliani said in an interview in which he revealed that the administration has written a letter that will be released soon saying that Schiff’s committee is illegitimate.

“I wouldn’t testify in front of that committee until there is a vote of Congress and he [Schiff] is removed,” Giuliani said, referring to Republican calls for a full House vote on an impeachment inquiry and the removal of Schiff as the committee’s chairman.

We are seeing the way injustice unfolds in the streets and in our homes, as people like Botham Jean are shot in their own apartments by the police. Despite a conviction, the light sentence in comparison to the much longer terms typically given to Black and brown people evidences what little value this country’s “justice” system places on people of color. As water protectors face 110 years in prison for protecting Indigenous rights, we remain resolute in our conviction that this police and prison system has no place in a socialist future.

We do not believe that the mere impeachment of Trump will address these injustices. It will not improve the lives of millions of working class people who make enormous sacrifices just to make ends meet. Though this fight was started by “the squad,” as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib have come to be known, their calls for impeachment had long been ignored by the political elite until one of their own was targeted by the Trump administration’s agenda. As such, we don’t believe the impeachment process will do anything to bring working class people into the political process.

Only people powered movements can do that, and we believe change is coming.

https://www.dsausa.org/statements/dsa-national-political-committee-npc-statement-on-impeachment/

*golf clap*

That's nice, children. Run back and play in your room.

As such, we don’t believe the impeachment process will do anything to bring working class people into the political process.

...you don't say?

The DSA should stick to chapter-by-chapter efforts to fix local problems and build their organization that way. Opining on national issues when they have no national power base is ridiculous and makes them look like assholes. Go win some school board elections.

suck on it

We know that both Nancy Pelosi and Trump are a part of this ruling elite. Though they might find themselves at odds now, in the end they will both be against the demands of the working class and any platform that unites them.

bravely standing idly by